The research of segregation is considered to be the origin of urban sociology. Because segregation is mainly explained as a big-city phenomenon and the metropolis serves as a research paradigm of modern urbanism, smaller towns are often neglected in urban and segregation research. Not noticed by politics and research, immigration has increased in rural areas in the past decades, which puts forward questions of the integration of immigrants in small towns. The research on processes of segregationThe research of segregation is considered to be the origin of urban sociology. Because segregation is mainly explained as a big-city phenomenon and the metropolis serves as a research paradigm of modern urbanism, smaller towns are often neglected in urban and segregation research. Not noticed by politics and research, immigration has increased in rural areas in the past decades, which puts forward questions of the integration of immigrants in small towns. The research on processes of segregation is becoming more significant for the analysis of the integration of immigrants in small towns, as it is assumed that the job market is losing its integrating qualities and therefore neighborhoods, living conditions, and neighborhood institutions gain in importance for the integration process. This study reviews the current state of urban research on the given subject and puts the urban phenomenon of segregation in the context of small towns using a case study of Genthin, a small town in Saxony Anhalt. The study employs a qualitative research approach to investigate the reality of ethnic segregation in small towns by illustrating the local conditions and tendencies of segregation, its causes, characteristics, and its perception by different groups within the town’s society. Furthermore this work suggests methods for the analysis of ethnic segregation in small towns. The analysis of these topics is intended to provide a clear understanding of the primary argument of this thesis, namely that the process of ethnic segregation in small towns seems to express itself in a different dimension in comparison to big cities. The appearance and ongoing development of segregation in a neighborhood in the case study are not only determined by macro-social factors and trends, but rather substantially affected by local practices, political decisions and also by the perceptions and views of the small town society. This intense scrutiny of the neighborhood produces a stigmatization of the neighborhood and its residents, which highly influences the quality of segregation and the integration process of immigrants. In order to understand the complexity of segregation development in small towns, which is highly affected by particular processes of stigmatization, this study proposes the necessity of setting a different pattern for the research of the subject in small towns from common approaches used for researching the same phenomena in big cities. Online-Version published by Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin (www.univerlag.tu-berlin.de).…